Dates to Memorize When Preparing
For the AP U.S. History Exam
Schlesinger’s Cycles of American History
Historian Arthur Schlesinger believed the U.S. entered a period of public action and
political reform approximately every thirty years. The beginning of each period of reform is
listed below.
1.
1801
Thomas Jefferson became president
2.
1829
Andrew Jackson became president
3.
1861
Abraham Lincoln became president
4.
1901
Theodore Roosevelt became president
5.
1933
Franklin Roosevelt became president
6.
1961
John Kennedy became president
Presidents Elected in a Year ending in Zero
As a result of what some people call the “Curse of Tippecanoe,” every president elected in a
year ending in zero from 1840 to 1960 died in office.
1.
1800
Thomas Jefferson elected president
2.
1820
James Monroe re-elected president
3.
1840
William Henry Harrison elected president
4.
1860
Abraham Lincoln elected president
5.
1880
James Garfield elected president
6.
1900
William McKinley re-elected president
7.
1920
Warren Harding elected president
8.
1940
Franklin Roosevelt re-elected president (third term)
9.
1960
John Kennedy elected president
10.
1980
Ronald Reagan elected president
11.
2000
George W. Bush elected president
Wars in United States History
1.
1776 – 1783
American Revolution
2.
1812 - 1814
War of 1812
3.
1846 - 1848
Mexican-American War
4.
1861 - 1865
Civil War
5.
1898
6.
1914 - 1918
World War I
7.
1939 - 1945
World War II
8.
1950 - 1953
Korean War
9.
1963 - 1975
Vietnam War
Spanish-American War
10.
1990 - 1991
Persian Gulf War
11.
2001 - present Afghan War
12.
2003 - 2011
Iraqi War
Miscellaneous Dates to Remember
1.
1492
Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas
2.
1607
Jamestown established
3.
1763
French and Indian War ended
4.
1776
Declaration of Independence
5.
6.
1787 – 1789
1789
Constitutional Convention
George Washington became president
7.
1817 - 1825
Era of Good Feelings
8.
1865 - 1877
Reconstruction Era
9.
1890 - 1920
Progressive Era
10. 1929 - 1939
Great Depression
11.
Cold War
1945 - 1991
Quiz – Dates in U.S. History
Directions: Match the event with the time period listed below and receive 1 point. Receive
a bonus point for knowing the year the event occurred.
A. 1607 – 1762
G. 1877 - 1900
B. 1763 – 1788
H. 1901 – 1919
C. 1789 – 1816
I 1920 – 1938
D. 1817 – 1839
J. 1939 – 1959
E. 1840 – 1859
K. 1960 – 1979
F. 1860 – 1876
L. 1980 – present
1.
Time
Period
C
2.
H
1901 Progressive Era began when Theodore Roosevelt became president
3.
F
1861 Attack on Fort Sumter began the Civil War
4.
A
1607 Jamestown founded
5.
D
1817 Era of Good Feelings began
6.
C
1801 Thomas Jefferson became president
7.
K
1961 John Kennedy became president
8.
H
1917
9.
I
1933 Franklin Roosevelt became president (first term)
10.
G
1877 Reconstruction Era ended
11.
C
1793 Edmond Genet challenged U.S. neutrality
12.
F
1867 Purchase of Alaska
13.
K
1978 Camp David Accords signed
14.
K
1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
15.
H
1920 19th Amendment ratified
16.
F
1869 Transcontinental railroad completed
17.
G
1887 Dawes Indian Severalty Act
18.
B
1786 Shays’ Rebellion
19.
D
1838 Trail of Tears
20.
E
1854 Republican Party created
21.
E
1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford
22.
K
1968 Vietnamization began
23.
I
1925 Scopes Trial
Date
1789 Washington becomes 1st president of the U.S.
U.S. entered World War I
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
1607 – 1762
1763 – 1788
1789 – 1816
1817 – 1839
1840 – 1859
1860 – 1876
G. 1877 - 1900
H. 1901 – 1919
I 1920 – 1938
J. 1939 – 1959
K. 1960 – 1979
L. 1980 – present
24.
A
1692 Salem witch trials
25.
D
1831 Nat Turner’s revolt
26.
G
1890 Sherman Antitrust Act
27.
H
1914 Clayton Antitrust Act
28.
E
1859 John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry
29.
B
1778 Franco-American Treaty of Alliance signed
30.
C
1814 Treaty of Ghent signed
31.
H
1909 NAACP created
32.
H
1918 Fourteen Points introduced
33.
J
1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed
34.
L
1987 INF Treaty signed
35.
D
1819 Adams-Onis Treaty signed
36.
A
1733 James Oglethorpe established Georgia
37.
D
1833 President Jackson destroyed the Bank of the United States
38.
F
1869 Knights of Labor created
39.
G
1886 American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) created
40.
I
1935 Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) created
41.
E
1848 Seneca Falls convention for women’s rights
42.
G
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
43.
J
1941 Atlantic Charter signed
44.
D
1823 Monroe Doctrine announced
45.
A
1620 Mayflower Compact signed
46.
J
1941 Pearl Harbor attacked
47.
J
1949 NATO created
48.
J
1948 Marshall Plan announced
49.
I
1927 The Jazz Singer
50.
L
1991 Soviet Union dissolved
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
1607 – 1762
1763 – 1788
1789 – 1816
1817 – 1839
1840 – 1859
1860 – 1876
G. 1877 - 1900
H. 1901 – 1919
I 1920 – 1938
J. 1939 – 1959
K. 1960 – 1979
L. 1980 – present
51.
B
1776 Thomas Paine published Common Sense
52.
B
1765 Stamp Act
53.
F
1865 13th Amendment ratified
54.
G
1890 Wounded Knee massacre
55.
J
1957 Sputnik launched by U.S.S.R.
56.
I
1933 Good Neighbor Policy announced
57.
K
1961 Bay of Pigs invasion failed
58.
F
1862 Homestead Act
59.
A
1740 Jonathan Edwards sparked the Great Awakening
60.
C
1800 John Adams appoints “midnight judges”
61.
G
1898 Spanish-American War began
62.
K
1964 Lyndon Johnson signed Civil Rights Act
63.
J
1954 Joseph McCarthy censured by U.S. Senate
64.
J
1955 Rosa Parks sets off a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama
65.
I
1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff
66.
I
1929 Stock Market crash marks the beginning of the Great Depression
67.
F
1876 Battle of Little Big Horn
68.
E
1849 California gold rush
69.
G
1898 Plessy v. Ferguson
70.
F
1863 Emancipation Proclamation
71.
E
1845 The term “manifest destiny” first used
72.
J
1945 Yalta Conference
73.
L
1985 Iran-Contra scandal
74.
K
1968 Tet Offensive
75.
J
1944 Invasion of Normandy
76.
F
1863 Battles of Vicksburg & Gettysburg
77.
K
1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
1607 – 1762
1763 – 1788
1789 – 1816
1817 – 1839
1840 – 1859
1860 – 1876
G. 1877 - 1900
H. 1901 – 1919
I 1920 – 1938
J. 1939 – 1959
K. 1960 – 1979
L. 1980 – present
78.
K
1972 Nixon opened U.S. relations with China
79.
K
1974 Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions
80.
J
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
81.
I
1932 Bonus March of World War I veterans on Washington, D.C.
82.
K
1963 Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique
83.
E
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin
84.
H
1906 Upton Sinclair published The Jungle
85.
A
1636 Roger Williams established Rhode Island
86.
B
1763 French & Indian War ended
87.
B
1773 Boston Tea Party
88.
C
1793 Cotton gin invented
89.
C
1798 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
90.
E
1848 Mexican-American War ended
91.
H
1903 Wright brothers fly the first airplane
92.
H
1913 Federal Reserve System created
93.
I
1927 Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean
94.
J
1947 Truman Doctrine announced
95.
J
1947 Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers
96.
J
1954 Brown v. Board of Education
97.
J
1957 Little Rock High School integrated by federal troops
98.
K
1965 Malcolm X assassinated
99.
K
1968 American Indian Movement (AIM) created
100.
K
1963 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech